Persian Gulf crisis
The Persian Gulf crisis was a period of heightened political tensions between the United States and Iran beginning with an alleged Iranian attack on four Norwegian, Saudi Arabian, and Emirati merchant ships on 12 May 2019. The United States deployed a carrier strike group, 4 B-52 bombers, and 2,500 more troops to the Persian Gulf, and the crisis escalated as the USA assembled a multinational task force to protect international shipping in the Gulf from Iran and its allies. In January 2020, the conflict escalated when Iranian-backed Shia paramilitaries in Iraq attacked the US embassy in Baghdad in response to US airstrikes retaliating against the Kata'ib Hezbollah group for a rocket attack; the US responded to the embassy attack by killing Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani and PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in an airstrike near Baghdad International Airport. Background As the result of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, the divisive Republican candidate Donald Trump won a highly controversial election in which Russia and, allegedly, China meddled in the election to sabotage Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. Trump, unlike his Democrat predecessor Barack Obama, was opposed to a nuclear deal with Iran, and Trump accused the deal of opening the door for a nuclear holocaust. In July 2017, he placed sanctions on Iran, Russia, and North Korea, and, in May 2018, he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal. In late July 2018, in response to the US sanctions and Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran threatened to close the Straits of Hormuz to US traffic. At the same time, Trump began plotting to assist Iranian opposition groups against the government, which he openly accused of sponsoring terrorism. On 13 August 2018, Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei ended direct talks with the United States, and Iran resumed its nuclear program. In April 2019, the US government - against the advice of the CIA - designated Iran's IRGC armed forces as a terrorist group, a major insult to the Iranian government. Crisis In May 2019, the United States began deploying more military assets to the Persian Gulf after receiving word of an Iranian plan to use its proxies to hinder oil shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranians also began to place missiles on dhows to threaten the US Navy in the region. On 5 May 2019, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and four B-52s to the Middle East after Israeli intelligence warned the US of Iranian plans to attack US forces in the region. ian drone's footage of the US aircraft carrier]] On 12 May 2019, four commercial ships, including two Saudi Aramco oil tankers, were torpedoed near the port of Fujairah in the Gulf of Oman, and the United Arab Emirates and the United States blamed Iran or its proxies for the attack. On 13 May, US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan planned to send 120,000 more US troops to the Middle East if Iran took further action against US assets. On 15 May, the US evacuated all non-emergency staff from the US embassy in Baghdad. On 24 May, five days after a rocket landed near the US embassy in Baghdad, 900 fresh troops were sent to the Middle East. On 17 June, 1,000 more troops were sent to the Middle East after two oil tankers were attacked by Iranian limpet mines. On 20 June, the Iranian IRGC shot down a US drone, which it claimed violated Iranian airspace. The US argued that it was over international waters, and Trump ordered a retaliatory strike that same day. He decided to halt the operation after he was warned that as many as 150 Iranians could be killed, and his reversal was criticized by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and by Bolton. On 22 June, however, he approved cyber attacks on IRGC rocket and missile control systems, and, on 25 June, Iran cut off diplomatic relations with the USA. On 28 June, the US deployed 12 F-22 Raptor jets to Qatar to defend American forces and interests. On 18 July 2019, the USS Boxer downed an Iranian drone by electronically jamming it, causing renewed tensions. Just a day later, two British oil tankers were seized by Iranian ships, with the Liberian-flagged tanker ''Mesdar ''being allowed to continue on and the British-flagged ''Stena Impero ''being captured. On 22 July 2019, the Iranian government arrested 17 alleged CIA spies. On 31 July, the US Department of the Treasury enacted sanctions against Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. On 4 August, the Iranians seized another tanker, an Iraqi one, after accusing it of smuggling fuel for the Arab nations. On 14 September 2019, the crisis escalated when an unmarked drone attacked Saudi oil facilities at Abqaiq-Khurais, disrupting ARAMCO oil exports by 5.7 million barrels a day, causing the Saudi stock market and oil exports to plummet, and leading to the USA beginning to use its oil reserves. A day later, both Iran and the United States stated that they were ready for war, with the USA stating that it was "locked and loaded" and ready to cooperate with Saudi Arabia in the war on terrorism, while Iran said that it was ready for war after Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for backing the Houthis. Conflict turns hot On 27 December 2019, the situation escalated when the Iranian-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah paramilitary group in Iraq fired 30 rockets at the K-1 Air Base in Kirkuk, killing a US civilian contractor and injuring 4 US servicemen and 2 Iraqi security personnel. At 11:00 AM on 29 December, the US retaliated with airstrikes against Kata'ib Hezbollah positions in Iraq and Syria, killing at least 25 militia fighters and wounding 55; among the dead were 4 militia leaders. Iraq called the airstrikes a "stab in the back", Iran called them "terrorism", and Kata'ib Hezbollah swore revenge; on 31 December, pro-Kata'ib Hezbollah protesters stormed the US embassy in Baghdad. The PMF leadership called off the attack after claiming that the USA had received their message. Killing of Soleimani However, the attack - which top US officials claimed was backed and armed by Iran - provoked the USA into bombing a convoy carrying Iranian Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani and PMF commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis at the Baghdad International Airport early on 3 January 2020, killing the two major leaders. The attack killed eight people, with the IRGC and PMF calling them "martyrs". Senior IRGC officer Mohsen Rezaee promised "vigorous revenge against America" for Soleimani's assassination, and Iranian state television cut all broadcasts and replaced them with prayers for Soleimani. Later that day, the US deployed 3,000 more troops to the Middle East to protect its embassies, and several US cities were placed on high alert due to fears of Iranian retaliation. A day later, Trump threatened to bomb 52 (the number of hostages taken during the Iran hostage crisis) Iranian targets, including cultural sites, if Iran retaliated for Soleimani's killing. Iranian retaliation On 7 January 2020, Qasem Soleimani was buried in a funeral attended in the largest public funeral in Iran since the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989; 56 people died and 213 were injured during a stampede at the funeral in Kerman. That same day, the Islamic Consultative Assembly formally designated the US Department of Defense as a terrorist organization, rendering all US Armed Forces and Pentagon personnel "terrorists" in the eyes of the Iranian government. Amid rising tensions, Germany and Canada began to withdraw their forces from Iraq, preparing for an escalation. At 6:54 PM ET, reports surfaced that ten rockets hit the US-occupied al-Asad Air Base in western Iraq, and the IRGC claimed responsibility, warning the US of more "crushing responses in cases of new aggression". Major-General Mortada Qurbani confirmed that Iran was in a "high state of alert to destroy (US) bases in the region and humiliate (the US)." Both Trump and the leaders of the US intelligence community were briefed on the attack, and Dow futures fell more than 250 points following the rocket attack. Category:Events Category:Crises